Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing Alumni Association

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Philosophy

This is the nursing philosophy (verbatim) as adopted by the Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing:

"We believe that education is a creative process whereby an individual is guided through selected experiences that are limited by the ideals our society wishes to instill in the next generation, for the purposes of assisting students to learn to deal effectively with their physical environment and to establish meaningful relationships. The components of education are an organized body of knowledge and a controlled environment, a learner and a teacher with established goals, and a subsequent change in behavior.

We accept the premise that our students' goals are to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for self-realization and for effectively functioning as member of the nursing profession and as citizens of the community. We believe that people have individual needs, motivation and talents. We believe that learning takes place most effectively when the learner is physically and psychologically able and ready to learn, is aware of their needs and feels that learning is a useful and satisfying experience. It is recognized that the outcomes of learning are dependent upon what the students perceive, what they transfer from previous experiences and what they are able to use. We believe that intellectual, emotional and social behavior is affected by interpersonal relationships within the learning experience.

We believe that the practice of professional nursing includes not only nursing care, but coordination of this care with the services performed by other health practitioners, provision for continuity of this care in other life situations of the patient, evaluation of patient care with other professional health workers; and the teaching, supervising and directing of nursing auxiliary personnel and family members to assist in giving patient care.

We believe nursing care to be rooted in feelings of compassion, respect and concern for the individual and that the uniqueness of professional nursing lies in the therapeutic relationship that develops between patients and nurses as they perform those services which the patients would otherwise do for themselves in fulfilling their basic needs if they were able.

We believe that nursing students are influenced in their learning by the quality of nursing practice which they observe; that in order to learn good nursing they must see good nursing practiced. We believe that if we seek to teach students to understand patients and to treat them with kindness, students must feel valued for their dignity and worth and be shown understanding and consideration.

We also believe that an atmosphere that is truly educational is one that not only permits, but also encourages freedom of inquiry, and allows for self-direction which increases as students grow in their ability to assume responsibility.

We believe that the student experiences security and develops self-discipline if reasonable and clearly understood limits of behavior are set and enforced with fairness, consistency and consideration. We believe that the environment that has been described is one that is consistent with the principles of Christian living and with the general philosophy of our institution.

We believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to motivate and to guide students through meaningful learning experiences providing emotional support where needed and helping students evaluate their present learning in relationship to past achievement."